USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Derry > The history of Londonderry : comprising the towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H. > Part 7
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Londonderry > The history of Londonderry : comprising the towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H. > Part 7
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
In the application of the subject to their emigration, he states the following as reasons of their removal to America. 1. To avoid oppression and cruel bondage. 2. To shun persecution and designed ruin. 3. To withdraw from the communion of idolaters. 4. To have an opportunity of wor- shipping God, according to the dictates of conscience and the rules of his inspired Word.
They were, moreover, induced to contemplate a settlement in this land, by the favorable report of a young man, by the name of Holmes, the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, who had visited this country. Encouraged by his representations of the civil and religious privileges which were enjoyed by the American colonies, his father, and three other Presby- terian ministers, James MacGregor, William Cornwell, and William Boyd, with a portion of their respective congre- gations, determined on a removal to this country.
still uncultivated, the beauty of the scenery, the mildness of the winters (on the thirtieth of March, 1845, I saw peaches in full blossom, in the open air, at Belfast,) I could not but realize that moral heroism, which could induce men, perfectly advised of all they were to expect or obtain, to cmigrate to the New World. Men in the most wild belicf of the precious metals, will seek new countries with reekless disregard of all consequences. Our Irish ancestors knew that they were leaving a better country for a poorer, (speaking agriculturally,) and with only the prospect of toil before them. Imagination lent no charms to the future. They must have had motives reaching beyond the present. Their char- acters, and I believe the moral tone of the vast masses of their widely- spread descendants, leave us in no doubt of the true impulses which governed them."
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CIVIL HISTORY.
In order to prepare the way and secure a reception and a place of settlement on their arrival here, they dispatched, early in the year 1718, Rev. Mr. Boyd, with an address to governor Shute, of Massachusetts, espressing a strong desire to remove to New England, should he afford them suitable encouragement. They also empowered Mr. Boyd to make all the necessary arrangements with the civil authority for their reception.
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The address is very concise and appropriate, and is signed by two hundred and seventeen, each subscribing his own name in a fair and legible hand, except seven, whose marks are affixed. That so large a proportion, in the circumstances in which they were placed while in Ireland, were able to write, is a fact that serves very clearly to show that, as a company, they were superior to the common class of emi- grants. Nine of the subscribers were ministers of the gospel, and three others were graduates at the university in Scot- land. The document is on parchment, in a good state of preservation, and may be regarded as a valuable relic of these early adventurers to this land. A copy is inserted in the Appendix, and it will no doubt be gratifying to many to observe, in the list of subscribers, the names of ancestors whom they have been accustomed to venerate. It would have given greater interest could a fac-simile of the names, as they appear on the manuscript, have been presented.
Mr. Boyd received from governor Shute the desired encouragement. On communicating it to his friends in Ireland, by whom he had been commissioned, they immedi- ately converted their property into money, embarked in five ships for Boston, and arrived there August 4, 1718.
That portion of the emigrants who had been the charge of Rev. Mr. MacGregor in Ireland, and others who joined them, wished to unite, that they might continue to enjoy his labors as their pastor. Among this number were the McKeen families, with their connections.
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HISTORY OF LONDONDERRY.
James McKeen, brother-in-law to Mr. MacGregor, and who appears to have been the leading influential member of this body, on conferring with governor Shute, was informed that there was good land in the vicinity of Casco Bay, Me., which they might have, and where they could carry into effect their particular design as a community, and secure the enjoyment of religious ordinances under the ministry of their favorite teacher.
Another portion of this company of emigrants repaired to Worcester, and there attempted to form a settlement and enjoy religious privileges under the ministry of one of the pastors who had accompanied them to this country. And although they were an industrious, orderly, worthy, and pious congregation, yet, in consequence of their being foreign- ers, especially from Ireland, and introducing the Presby- terian mode of worship, which was before unknown in New England, the prejudices of the Congregational communities in Worcester were so strong and bitter towards them, that they were compelled to leave the place. They in conse- quence separated and were dispersed through the country. Some of these families settled in Coleraine, some in Palmer, some in Pelham, and some in other towns in Massachusetts ; and being joined by emigrants, from time to time, from the' old country, formed those Presbyterian societies which existed for many years in these several towns.
A considerable number of this body of emigrants, on arriving at Boston, saw fit to remain in that city ; and, uniting with those of their countrymen of their own faith, whom they found there, formed the first Presbyterian church and soci- ety, over which the Rev. John Morehead was installed pastor. It was at first styled the Presbyterian church in Long Lane, - subsequently Federal Street.
Sixteen of the families who had purposed to form a distinct settlement, and become the charge of the Rev. Mr. Mac- Gregor, embarked in a vessel for Casco Bay, in order to
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CIVIL HISTORY.
select a township; while the remaining families, with Mr. MacGregor, retired from Boston into the country ; some to Andover, others to Dracut, until a suitable tract of land should be found for a permanent settlement.
The party that left Boston for Casco Bay, arrived there late in the season ; and it proving to be a very early and cold winter, the vessel was frozen in. Many of the families, not being able to find accommodations on shore, were obliged to pass the whole winter on board the ship, suffering severely from the want of food, as well as of conveniences of situation.
Willis, in his History of Portland, referring to this event, says : " In the autumn of 1718, a vessel arrived in the har- bor of Falmouth, now Portland, with twenty families of emi- grants from Ireland. They were descendants of a colony from Argyleshire in Scotland, and settled in the north of Ireland about the middle of the seventeenth century. They were rigid Presbyterians, and fled from Scotland to avoid the persecutions of Charles the First. They suffered severely during the winter here; their provisions failed, and our inhabitants had neither shelter nor food sufficient for so large an accession to the population. In December, the inhab- itants petitioned the General Court at Boston for relief. They stated their grievances as follows: That there are now in the town about three hundred souls, most of whom are arrived from Ireland, of which not one half have provision enough to live upon over winter, and so poor that they are not able to buy any, and none of the first inhabitants so well furnished as that they are able to supply them ; and they prayed that the Court would consider their desolate circum- stances, by reason of the great company of poor strangers arrived among them, and take speedy and effectual care of their supply. On this application, the Court ordered that one hundred bushels of Indian meal be allowed, and paid out of the treasury, for the poor Irish people mentioned in the petition." It is subjoined, in a note to this record, "That
4
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HISTORY OF LONDONDERRY.
James McKeen, the grandfather of the first president of Bowdoin College, was of this company, and the agent who selected the land on which they settled."
On the opening of spring, the little colony prepared to commence an examination of the territory to which they had been directed by governor Shute. As they disembarked in this new country, to which they had come to seek a residence for themselves and their descendants, they assembled, accord- ing to tradition, on the shore, and joined in acts of religious worship, devoutly acknowledging the divine goodness in their preservation upon the great deep, and during the un- usually severe winter which they had experienced. No one of their number had suffered by sickness, or been removed by death. Standing on the shore of the ocean which sep- arated them from their native land, they offered their devout praises in that " most touching of all songs," the one hundred and thirty-seventh psalm. As they surveyed the unsubdued and uninhabited country around them, and looked back upon the homes of their youth, and upon the blessings and com- forts which they had there possessed, amidst their many trials, they were ready to hang their harps upon the willows, and say, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land!" But they looked forward, with hope and constancy, to the attainment of the great object for which they had come, religious freedom. And as they renewed their cove- nant vows, and called to mind the persecuted, suffering state of the church in their native land, they could with fixed determination say, as did the Jewish captives, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning ; if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy."
They were not men to be put back or turned aside by obstacles. They had counted the cost of their undertaking, and were prepared to meet it. After having explored for some distance the country eastward from Casco Bay, and
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CIVIL HISTORY.
finding no tract of land that pleased them, they concluded to .return; and, directing their course westward, entered the Merrimack, which they ascended to Haverhill, where they arrived the 2d of April, old style. While at Haverhill, they heard of a fine tract of land about fifteen miles distant, called Nutfield, on account of the abundance of the chestnut, butter- nut, and walnut-trees, which distinguished the growth of its forests. The men, leaving their families at Haverhill, came and examined the tract; and, ascertaining that it was not appropriated, they at once decided here to take up the grant which they had obtained from the government of Massa- chusetts, of a township twelve miles square of any of her unappropriated lands.
Having selected the spot on which to commence their settlement, and having built a few temporary huts, which they left in charge of two or three of their number, they returned to Haverhill to bring on their families, their pro- visions, their implements of labor, and what little household furniture they could collect. A part of the company return- ed from Haverhill by the way of Dracut, where Mr. Mac- Gregor had passed the winter in teaching, that they might bring him with them ; the others came more directly. The two parties arrived at about the same time, and met, as tradition says, at a spot ever after termed Horse Hill, from the fact of their having there tied their horses, while they sur- veyed the territory around. The day of their arrival here, and on which the settlement commenced, was the eleventh day of April, old style, 1719.
Mr. MacGregor, on meeting this portion of his beloved flock, from whom he had been separated some months since their arrival in America, and on the spot so happily selected as the place of their future residence, made an affectionate and impressive address, in which he congratulated them on the propitious termination of their wanderings, their signal preservation as a company while crossing the ocean, and
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HISTORY OF LONDONDERRY.
since their arrival in this country, and exhorted them to continued confidence in God, planted as they now were in the wilderness, and strangers in a strange land.
Having with them explored more fully the territory which had been selected as a township, and made some general arrangements as to their future proceedings, he returned to his family in Dracut. Before leaving them, he delivered, April 12th, under a large oak, on the east side of Beaver Pond, the first sermon ever preached in this town. His text was from the prophecy of Isaiah, 32 : 2, " And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Then, for the first time, did this wilderness and solitary place, over which the savage tribes had for centuries roamed, resound with the voice of prayer and praise, and echo to the sound of the gospel. The spot where this religious service was held, especially the tree around which they assembled, was long after regarded with a degree of reverence, not unlike that felt by the patriarch in regard to the spot on which he rested, when favored with the heavenly vision. On the prostration of this venerable oak through decay, the owner of the field in which it stood planted a young apple-tree among its decayed roots, which is now a thrifty tree, and will long serve to designate the venerated spot .*
The field on which they first erected their rude cabins, as a temporary accommodation for their families, and which they cultivated the first year in common, lies not far from the turnpike as it crosses West-running Brook, and has ever since been called " the common field."
* It has been suggested, that as there are so many pleasing associa- tions connected with it this spot, well deserves some more enduring memorial; and for this object, it has been proposed that a granite obelisk, bearing appropriate inscriptions, should at some early day be erected in place of the tree. It is hoped that the suggestion will meet with a prompt response. See last page of Appendix.
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CIVIL HISTORY.
As soon as the company of settlers had organized them- selves into a religious society, in order to the full and stated enjoyment of divine ordinances, which was the leading object of their emigration, they proceeded, according to the pre- scribed order of the Presbyterian church, to present in due form a call to the Rev. James MacGregor, to become their pastor.
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Some of them had been his pastoral charge while in Ireland, and all were well satisfied as to his worth, and his distinguished gifts as a minister of Christ. Sometime in May following, Mr. MacGregor, in compliance with their call, removed with his family from Dracut to their settlement, and assumed the pastoral charge of the society. As no presbytery then existed in New England, there could be no formal installation ; nor was it essentially needful; as Mr. MacGregor had received ordination some years before, in Ireland. A formal and public recognition of the ecclesias- tical relation thus formed between them, was all that in this case was requisite.
Accordingly, on a day appointed for the purpose, the people having assembled, he, in connection with appropriate religious services, solemnly assumed the pastoral charge of the church and congregation ; and they with like solemnity, and by a formal act, received him as their pastor and spirit- ual guide.
He preached to them on the occasion from those appro- priate, and, as it regarded this infant settlement, truly prophetic words (Ezekiel 37 : 26), " Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them ; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore."
Having shown that it is the Lord who places a people in a land ; multiplies them therein, and affords them the ordi- nances of religion, he reminded his brethren, that "they
4*
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HISTORY OF LONDONDERRY.
should devoutly acknowledge the providence of God in all past changes, particularly in their emigration to this new world; that they should live by faith in what was before them; fervently pray that God would continue to bless them ; be firmly united one with another; walk in the fear of God, and keep his charge."*
These discourses, delivered by their venerated author on occasions so interesting, are noticed, for the purpose of show- ing that the removal and settlement of this company of emi- grants was from religious principle, and in reliance upon the divine guidance and protection. And has not the promise contained in the inspired passage from which he addressed his little flock, been most strikingly fulfilled in respect to the settlement they were then commencing? God, in his provi- dence, not only planted them here, but greatly multiplied them, so that from this settlement many others were early formed. It proved a most fruitful vine. He also set his sanctuary in the midst of them, and has continued to them and to their descendants in this place, without interruption for more than a century, the ordinances of religion. From that memorable day on which this sermon was preached, and the Christian ministry established among this people, to the present, a period of one hundred and thirty years, they have at no time been destitute of a settled ministry, and the full enjoyment of gospel privileges. The churches and religious societies here early established, have been signally preserved and prospered; retaining, amidst the many changes and divisions in surrounding communities, the same faith, and the same mode of church government and religious worship, originally adopted.
This stability may, in part, be attributed to their staid
* The original manuscript of this sermon, with other manuscript sermons of Rev. James MacGregor, is now in the possession of Rev. John M. Whiton, D. D., of Antrim, N. II.
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CIVIL HISTORY.
attachment to the Presbyterian doctrine and discipline, as observed by the Church of Scotland. Presbyterianism, as adopted by the Reformers, and introduced into that country from Geneva, by John Knox, the celebrated Scotch Reformer, is opposed to the prelatic power of Episcopacy, on the one hand, and the independency of Congregationalism on the other ; guarding the church alike against a despotic govern- ment and a pure democracy. It adopts a form of govern- ment truly scriptural, as the representative form existed both in the Jewish and Christian church ; and, while efficient in its administration, is in full accordance with the principles of liberty and equality in the church. Its judicatories bear a striking resemblance to those adopted under a free repub- lican government. And while they unite and protect the whole body of professed disciples, they secure to each indi- vidual his full and perfect rights and influence. Every Congregational church, as it respects ecclesiastical govern- ment, is a separate and independent body ; while a Presby- terian church is under the care, and subject to the control, of the presbytery, which, in its turn, is subject to the synod, and that again to the general assembly, all representative, though permanent bodies. The pastor and a certain number of elders in each church, elected to this office by its members, constitute what is termed a Session, for the transaction of its affairs. As Congregationalism was first introduced into New England, it became the prevailing order of church government ; and although, through the illiberal spirit which marked that age, Presbyterianism for a time met with legis- lative as well as ecclesiastical opposition, yet eventually the members of that church werc left to the free and uninter- rupted enjoyment of their own forms of worship. And though differing in the external order of Christ's house, yet, being built upon the same precious foundation, the greatest harmony has long prevailed, in New England, between the Presbyterian and Congregational denominations ; and we
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HISTORY OF LONDONDERRY.
1
should deplore anything which would mar the union that so happily exists. While the one can serve God in their more free organization, the growth of more than two centuries, the other, rejoicing in the greater stringency of their system, can urge on the work of the blessed Redeemer, until all his followers shall see eye to eye, and the watchmen on the walls of Zion, lift up their voice together. When the com- mon foes threaten to sweep away all that is holy and true, especially does it behoove the sons of the Puritans, and the descendants of the Covenanters, to grasp the standard, and do battle for Christ's crown and covenant.
Those who first composed the settlement, were the follow- ing sixteen men with their families, namely :-
James McKeen, John Barnett, Archibald Clendenin, John Mitchell, James Sterrett, James Anderson, Randal Alex- ander, James Gregg, James Clark, James Nesmith, Allen Anderson, Robert Weir, John Morrison, Samuel Allison, Thomas Steele, and John Stuart. These pioneers of the settlement were most of them men in middle life, robust, persevering, and adventurous, well-suited to encounter the toils and endure the hardships of such an undertaking. Most of them attained to advanced age. They lived to see their descendants settled around them, and the forest into which they had penetrated converted into a fruitful field. The average age of thirteen of the number, of whose age alone we have any record, was seventy-nine years; six attained to nearly ninety, and two surpassed it. John Morrison, the oldest of this company, lived to the advanced age of ninety-seven years.
In order to secure the advantages of near neighborhood, and be thereby the better protected against the attacks of the Indians, in case of hostilities, with which the colonies were at the time threatened, these first families planted themselves on each side of a small brook, which, from the direction of its course, they called West-running Brook.
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CIVIL HISTORY.
And they decided that their home-lots should be but thirty rods wide, fronting the brook, and to be extended back on a north and south line, until they made up sixty acres each. By such an arrangement, their dwellings were brought into close vicinity, and formed what has ever since been termed the Double Range. This range was, for more than half a century, an interesting and populous section of the town. But the houses, once inhabited by flourishing families, have been one after another removed or demolished, and nothing now remains but the half-filled cellar to mark the place where they once stood. This arrangement in the early location of their dwellings, although it afforded them the advantages of neighborhood, and greater protection in case of assault, was, however, not so favorable to the uniform division of the township into lots, and the regularity of the highways. The multiplicity of the roads, bending in every direction to accommodate, as it would seem, the settlers, as they planted themselves, without any previous plan, in different parts of the town, and the consequent trouble and expense which have been realized in straightening and improving them, may be traced to this injudicious arrangement in the early settlement.
Being at the time a frontier town, and exposed to a savage foe, in consequence of a war with the eastern Indians, which broke out soon after their arrival, they erected two stone garrison-houses. These were strongly built, and well pre- pared to resist an attack. To these the several families retired at night, whenever danger from the foe was appre- hended. There was, however, one of their number, James Blair, a man of giant stature and of fearless courage, who scorned thus to shelter himself from his Indian enemies. He would never enter the garrison; but, with his trusty arms, remained without and alone. It was reported that this man, who, like Saul, king of Israel, " was from his shoulders and upward higher than any of the people," more
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HISTORY OF LONDONDERRY.
than once, in consequence of his stature, saved his own life, and that of his neighbors. After the close of one of the wars, the Indians related that they had laid in ambush, while Blair and others were at work in the field, and had opportunities to kill him, but seeing his huge form they dared not shoot, thinking him a god. Although, during one of the most severe Indian wars, Londonderry was a frontier . town, and therefore exposed to greater dangers than the more interior settlements, yet the town was never assailed. The yell of the savage, and the shriek of the murdered set- tler, were never heard here.
Tradition ascribes the signal preservation of this colony from the attacks of the Indians, to the influence of the Rev. Mr. MacGregor with the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the French governor of Canada. It is said that they were classmates at college, that a correspondence was maintained between them, and that, at the request and representation of his former friend, the governor caused means to be used for the protection of the settlement. He induced the Catholic priests to charge the Indians not to injure any of these people, as they were different from the English; and to assure them, that no bounty should be paid for their scalps, and that, if they killed any of them, their sins would not be forgiven. That such was the fact, the early inhabitants firmly believed. In confirmation of this tradition, on a manuscript sermon- book of Mr. MacGregor's, which has been preserved, is found the name of this French gentleman, and the various titles of office which he held, and by which he would of course be addressed.
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